The London Countdown

With 5 years of London life under my belt, and with just over 1 year remaining, I’ve come to the sad realisation that I may not even know what London is truly about.

I’ve done a lot of the things one would do here: I’ve seen the inside of many a pub, I’ve probably unconsciously altered the inflections in my speech, and I’ve travelled around global destinations from the 5+ “London” airports. But reality hit me like a lead pipe to the jugular when a friend asked me, “so what are your favourite London music venues?”… and I couldn’t think of anything. How bloody embarrassing.

My Favourite Rooftop @ Queen of Hoxton in Shoreditch

When friends come to visit London, I get really really excited. You’ll know if you’ve ever visited whilst I’ve been here. I’ll always try to put together a list of things to do, places to explore, adventures to partake. But how much do I reeeaaaalllyyy know? How wise are those nuggets of Londonspiration ???? What is missing that I ignorantly am leaving off??

Therefore, like a true crazy person, I strive to achieve all the following things before Arnie & I leave this incredible city ::

London Jam Series

Visit 50+ London Music Venues

Completed:

London Park Series

Visit every major park & garden in London

London is one of those European cities you visit where visitors are shockingly surprised at the aesthetics of the low beautifully architected older buildings and of the sheer amount of green space the city has to offer. It’s not a New York City, with massive high rises everywhere – it’s a vast, widespread city, and the amount of gardening that goes on does not leave much left to be desired.

First, let’s talk about the different types of parks you can find in London before I get into the details of the ones I’ll be visiting.

The first type of park you can find in London is the official “Royal Park.” Hey royal fam — we love your bushes! The Royal Parks’s brilliance isn’t limited to just the gardening game; they also are home to unique and historically or architecturally significant structures.

Other types of parks in London can be known as “Commons” or “Heaths.” Not sure if this was an intentionally classist distinction, but hey that’s what we’ve got. I’ve found that the “common peoples’ parks” aren’t typically as beautifully manicured and don’t have as many (or any??) swans! All the swans belong to the Queen. The swans here are also referred to as “pelicans” which is just absurd.

I’m just picturing Charles drowning in the massive beak of a pelican … if someone wants to photoshop that, I wouldn’t object! But I digress. Regardless of nomenclature, the parks in London are big beautiful gulps of fresh air, and I’ll bring as many to you as I possibly can. Here are the ones that I’ll be covering:

London Gems:

On any given day in London, there are about 340598 million fun, exciting, or ICONIC things to do. Within those 340598 million things includes incredible markets, food stalls, festivals, beautiful neighbourhoods, and unique splendours & eccentricities that make London who she really is.

This series of The London Countdown will take you to these lovely Gems that exude personality and diversity. Here’s a list of the upcoming gems that I’ll be tackling, with a full hit list to follow ::